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Atkins to lead cybersecurity development for HumanDrive CAV project

Design, engineering and project management consultancy Atkins has been chosen to develop the cybersecurity model and framework for the part UK government-funded HumanDrive connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) project.

The HumanDrive consortium recently won a grant award from the country’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, under its CAV2 funding program. The objective of the HumanDrive project is to build an autonomous vehicle with human-like, natural control and path planning, by 2020. It will be fully autonomous and capable of completing a lengthy end-to-end journey in a variety of settings, including country roads, A-roads and motorways. It will also be designed to mimic the style of a proficient human driver, to provide an enhanced experience for the occupants. Supported by consultancy SBD Automotive, Atkins’ work will ensure that the vehicle is digitally secure, resulting in a safer driving experience.

The project makes use of Atkins’ multi sector cyber resilience and intelligent mobility (iM) expertise to help further the UK’s ambition to be a global leader for the introduction of CAVs onto mainstream transport and infrastructure. This is expected to bring passenger and driver benefits, such as improvements to time, safety, and cost of ownership. Atkins partner on the cyber security side of the HumanDrive project, SBD Automotive, helps vehicle manufacturers and their partners create autonomous, more secure and better connected cars, through independent research, evaluation and strategic support.

“Any autonomous vehicle is potentially vulnerable to a range of threats, including cyber tampering, denial of service attacks or information disclosure. Our work will therefore include comprehensive threat analysis, risk assessment and security requirement identification of the HumanDrive system to mitigate these,” explained Keith Turner, head of cyber security development at Atkins.

“The resulting security model will encompass the HumanDrive vehicle platform, supporting infrastructure and the project as a whole. This work is a key component for the safe and successful trialing of autonomous vehicles in a full test environment before they join the road network.”

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